Comments on: College Money Tip #16: Incoming Freshman

By: Amit Sehgal

Amit Sehgal — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 07:33:36 +0000

Check out this site http://www.bookase.com, A price comparison search engine for books and textbooks. It searches for the lowest prices among the major online stores worldwide and also offers discount coupons. You can also choose among various shipping options to calculate the lowest price

By: Meg

Meg — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:51:35 +0000

You have no idea how much these tips will help me!

By: Lindsey

Lindsey — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 17:34:44 +0000

Thanks for the helpful tips! i’m starting college soon and i almost made the textbook mistake!! thanks for the alternative suggestions.

By: J. Scott Allen

J. Scott Allen — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:06:52 +0000

I agree that avoiding the college bookstore will bode well for your wallet. I always use http://www.bigwords.com They are a textbook search engine that searches all the online textbook retailers and rental sites to find you the best prices.

By: Diane

Diane — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:24:27 +0000

Great tips that I wish I had followed as an incoming freshman a few years ago. But luckily I have a younger sister who is starting college in a week and I’m passing all this info to her. She’s already ordered her books from websites like amazon.com, http://www.textbookrevolt.com and http://www.textbookrevolution.com for much cheaper prices…some were even free!

By: 8.12.09 featured blogs of the day and HP Back to School giveaway – Student Bloggers

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:33:08 +0000

[...] College Money Tip #16: Incoming Freshman [Poorer than You] [...]

By: Freshman Money Traps | Admit This!

Freshman Money Traps | Admit This! — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:53:16 +0000

[...] finance blog Poorer Than You warns new college students to be on the lookout for money-sapping, credit-ruining [...]

By: College Week Continued: Money Traps for Freshmen « Money & Life (but not necessarily in that order)

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 22:30:47 +0000

[...] and credit card companies give students in exchange for opening new accounts. Stephanie over at Poorer Than You explains: Free stuff is awesome! But you’ve got to know, in the back of your mind, that there’s [...]

By: Anon @ Deans Credit Ideas Guide

Anon @ Deans Credit Ideas Guide — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:09:44 +0000

Especially tip #3!!!!

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:43:35 +0000

Always check with the professor if they are keeping copies of the textbook on reserve in the library. Many of my professors did that and I was able to save a ton of money by spending a couple hours each week in the library reading the reserved book. Many professors didn’t advertise that they did this so the text books were easy to access. There were a few times I had to photocopy some pages but the few dollars in photocopies was a HUGE savings over the few hundred dollars that I would have spent on the books. The previous editions are usually fine for most classes anyways. Always try to do a comparison of the new vs. old edition for extras.

And yes, I did shop around for my books when I was a Freshman. And that was before many of the used text book sites came about.

Another tip is if you buy the books from the school bookstore, watch the refund policy. Sometimes you can front load your reading or assess the use of the book within a couple weeks of classes and then return it for full refund. This was helpful if the professor wouldn’t send the syllabus or give a good response about the textbook use until the first week of class, especially when they were one of the authors of the book.